Chris Sibben — A Hollow Crown: AI and the Formation of Students This post is an essay by Chris Sibben, which appeared recently in his Substack Mere Orthodoxy.  Here's a link to the original.   In it he addresses what for me is the key challenge that artificial intelligence poses for education.  AI illuminates a problem at the core of the educational enterprise, which is the danger that education systems will reward form over content, credentials over learning, signals over substance. 

Chris Sibben — A Hollow Crown: AI and the Formation of Students

This post is an essay by Chris Sibben, which appeared recently in his Substack Mere Orthodoxy.  Here's a link to the original.   In it he addresses what for me is the key challenge that artificial intelligence poses for education.  AI…

hedgehogreview.com/web-features...

An Anthropic cofounder's advice on what to study in college In the age of AI, Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark said it's important that students choose a major that helps them learn how to ask the right questions.

Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark says his literature degree proved to be a great match for working in AI.
He said the best majors will involve "synthesis across a whole variety of subjects."
www.businessinsider.com/jack-clark-a... via @businessinsider

Gurwinder (@gurwinder) A tribe’s collective stupidity is proportional to its demand for purity. The more closely a group must agree, the more must be trimmed from each brain to make it fit.

A tribe’s collective stupidity is proportional to its demand for purity. The more closely a group must agree, the more must be trimmed from each brain to make it fit.

substack.com/@gurwinder/n...

Aden Barton — How Harvard Careerism Killed the Classroom This post is an op-ed by Harvard undergrad Aden Barton, which was published a few years ago in the Harvard Crimson.  Here's a link to the original.  To see the graphs he refers to, click on the link. The essay explores the reasons for the recent surge in careerism among Harvard undergraduate as a way to understand the dysfunction built into the new academic meritocracy, a recurring theme in this blog. 

Aden Barton — How Harvard Careerism Killed the Classroom

This post is an op-ed by Harvard undergrad Aden Barton, which was published a few years ago in the Harvard Crimson.  Here's a link to the original.  To see the graphs he refers to, click on the link. The essay explores the reasons for the…

Why 'Cost Disease' Is the Secret Force Behind America's Toxic Solitude The screens got cheap. The shared experiences got expensive.

open.substack.com/pub/derektho...

How AI Critiques an Argument And What Every Instructor and Student Can Learn from That

open.substack.com/pub/stevenmi...

The Strategic Linguist (@thestrategiclinguist) Semantics is what the dictionary says. Pragmatics is what you actually mean. When someone says 'that's interesting' in a meeting, semantics tells us they find it noteworthy. Pragmatics tells us the...

Semantics is what the dictionary says.
Pragmatics is what you actually mean.

AI only understands semantics. It can't read the room. It can't detect the subtext that changes everything. It doesn't recognise social order without explicitly being told.

substack.com/@thestrategi...

Joel J Miller (@joeljmiller)

substack.com/@joeljmiller...

Thoughts On My Online Persona Social media provide a wide open space for social exchange and personal expression.  This openness is both its strength and its weakness.  Anything is possible, and in practice nearly everything does indeed take place online.  For anyone entering into this space, you have to choose your online persona.  Now that I've been posting on this site for four years or so, I thought it would be useful to explain the kind of persona I have chosen to adopt in my blog. 

Thoughts On My Online Persona

Social media provide a wide open space for social exchange and personal expression.  This openness is both its strength and its weakness.  Anything is possible, and in practice nearly everything does indeed take place online.  For anyone entering into this space, you…

#109. School Refusal: Crime, Psychopathology, or Human Right? How we view school refusal depends on our beliefs about children and human rights.

Perhaps the first thing we should ask when a child refuses to go to school is not how can we correct the child but how can we correct the school. What can be done to make this child, and all children, feel more comfortable and respected at school?

open.substack.com/pub/petergra...

ourworldindata.org/its-not-just...

Why Students Struggle With the Basics A Historical and Psychological Analysis

open.substack.com/pub/stevenmi...

The Mississippi Miracle is the result of gaming the system. They held back the lowest scoring students from promotion to 4th grade, which then suddenly raise their 4th grade NAEP scores.
nepc.colorado.edu/blog/science...

The Mississippi Miracle is the result of gaming the system. They held back the lowest scoring students from promotion to 4th grade, which then suddenly raise their 4th grade NAEP scores.
nepc.colorado.edu/blog/science...

Academic Writing Issues: Failing to Tell a Story Good writers tell stories.  This is just as true for academic writers as for novelists and journalists.  The story needs actors and actions, and it needs to flow.  A sentence is a mini-story.  Each sentence needs to flow into the next and so does each paragraph.  When readers finish your paper, they need to be able to tell themselves and others what your story is. 

Academic Writing Issues: Failing to Tell a Story

Good writers tell stories.  This is just as true for academic writers as for novelists and journalists.  The story needs actors and actions, and it needs to flow.  A sentence is a mini-story.  Each sentence needs to flow into the next and so does…

How the Fall of the Roman Empire Spurred the Rise of Modernity — and What this Suggests about Rise of US Higher Ed This post is a brief commentary on historian Walter Scheidel's book, Escape from Rome.  It's a stunningly original analysis of a topic that has long fascinated scholars like me:  How did Europe come to create the modern world?  His answer is this:  Europe became the cauldron of modernity and the dominant power in the world because of the collapse of the Roman empire -- coupled with the fact that no other power was able to replace it for the next millennium. 

How the Fall of the Roman Empire Spurred the Rise of Modernity — and What this Suggests about Rise of US Higher Ed

This post is a brief commentary on historian Walter Scheidel's book, Escape from Rome.  It's a stunningly original analysis of a topic that has long fascinated scholars like me:  How…

Battery costs have declined by 99% in the last three decades, making electrified transport a reality Batteries have become much cheaper, making energy storage far more affordable.

ourworldindata.org/battery-pric...

Academic Writing Issues: Zombie Nouns One of the most prominent and dysfunctional traits of academic writing is its heavy reliance on what Helen Sword, in the piece below, calls "zombie nouns." These are cases when the writer takes an agile verb or adjective and transforms it into an imposing-looking noun with lead feet. Just add the proper suffix to a simple word and you too can produce a term that looks thoroughly academic.

Academic Writing Issues: Zombie Nouns

One of the most prominent and dysfunctional traits of academic writing is its heavy reliance on what Helen Sword, in the piece below, calls "zombie nouns." These are cases when the writer takes an agile verb or adjective and transforms it into an…

The world gets more seafood from aquaculture than wild catch There are two ways to produce seafood: catch fish in the wild or farm your own. Seafood farming is often called “aquaculture”. Aquaculture is dominated by the farming of fish, but also includes other ...

ourworldindata.org/data-insight...

Joel J Miller (@joeljmiller)

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What majors are most unemployed? An odd couple — anthro and computer engineering

The Attractions of Doing School This post is a piece I published a few years ago in Kappan.  Here’s a link to the original.  It’s a response to an essay by Jal Mehta proposing a new US grammar of schooling, and it refers to a piece I wrote for Kappan with my take on understanding the roots of this grammar.  In my response I explore why it’s risky to try to transform this grammar, since it meets so many normative and practical needs of schools and families. 

The Attractions of Doing School

This post is a piece I published a few years ago in Kappan.  Here’s a link to the original.  It’s a response to an essay by Jal Mehta proposing a new US grammar of schooling, and it refers to a piece I wrote for Kappan with my take on understanding the roots of this…

Academic Writing Issues: Excessive Signposting One of the most characteristic and annoying tendencies in academic writing is the excessive use of signposting: here's what I'm going to do, here I am doing it, and here's what I just did.  You can trim a lot of text from your next paper (and earn the gratitude of your readers) by just telling your story instead of continually anticipating this story.

Academic Writing Issues: Excessive Signposting

One of the most characteristic and annoying tendencies in academic writing is the excessive use of signposting: here's what I'm going to do, here I am doing it, and here's what I just did.  You can trim a lot of text from your next paper (and earn the…

Top scholar says evidence for special education inclusion is 'fundamentally flawed' Analysis of 50 years of research argues that there isn’t strong evidence for the academic advantages of placing children with disabilities in general education classrooms

Top scholar says evidence for special education inclusion is 'fundamentally flawed' hechingerreport.org/proof-points...

What If Napoleon Had Won at Waterloo What If Napoleon Had Won at Waterloo Today I want to explore an interesting case of counterfactual history.  What would have happened if Napoleon Bonaparte had won in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo?  What consequences might have followed for Europe in the next two centuries?  That he might have succeeded is not mere fantasy.  According to the victor, Lord Wellington, the battle was “the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life.”

What If Napoleon Had Won at Waterloo

What If Napoleon Had Won at Waterloo Today I want to explore an interesting case of counterfactual history.  What would have happened if Napoleon Bonaparte had won in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo?  What consequences might have followed for Europe in the next…